Nico Athene
b.1986 - Cape Town, RSA
Nico Athene is a body of colliding personas and intimate intricacies.
Her trans-disciplinary practice is based on an expanded notion of performance that slips between a critical view on photography, video, installation, drawing, painting and sculpture. Athene began making art around the complexities of trading gendered identity and relationship as an aesthetic practice when working as a stripper in a club. Since then, her practices focus on defracted and enmeshed notions of identity-beyond-capitalism, which she understands as an urgent and ecological prerogative. Athene completed her MFA at Wits in 2022. She facilitates workshops on eco-intimacy and understanding-consent-through-touch as part of her expanded performance practice.
Selected Press:
Art Throb: In Bed with My Sister
Art Throb: Memories of Gender
City Press: Nico Athene’s #MeToo statement
Bubblegumclub: In Bed With Nico Athene – a consideration of the body and embodied labour as an aesthetic
Education
2022 Masters in Fine Art, University of Witwatersrand. Awarded with Distinction
2012 Astanga Yoga Teacher Training (YTT200), Haum of Yoga.
2007 BA Social Anthropology and English, University of Cape Town. Awarded with Distinction.
Selected Solo Exhibitions & Performances
2021 We Need New Archetypes, Black Dog Studios, Cape Town.
Selected Group Exhibitions & Projects
2022 Constellations. Curated by Brett Bailey. Spier Estate, Cape Town.
2022 Spier Light Art Festival. Commissioned by Jay Pather and Vaughn Sadie, Stellenbosch.
2022 ‘No One Gets Out of This Alive (Enfant)’ 20-160 min performance piece. Commissioned and curated by Douglas Gimberg and Insitu_Africa for Pretext, Salt River, Cape Town.
2022 ‘Cruising Utopia’ 40 min performance piece ft. DRAGMOTHER on the decks. Commissioned by Jay Pather and Luvuyo Equiano Nyawose, for the Institute for Creative Arts Live Art Festival.
Cape Town
2021 Constellations. Curated by Brett Bailey. Spier Estate, Cape Town.
2021 Sasol New Signatures 2021, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria.
2021 A Short Philosophy on Medium, curated by Michele Rolestone and Henrietta Scholtz, AVA Gallery, Cape Town.
2020 Nonrepresentational, Stevenson Gallery, Online.
2020 ‘Together Apart’ 45 min video work curated and commissioned by the National Arts Festival South Africa, Makhanda, Online.
2019 Thami Mnyele Fine Art Awards, Ekhuruleni.
2019 Institute for Creative Arts Live Art Showcase, curated by Jay Pather, Cape Town, South Africa.
2019 Sasol New Signatures, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria
2019 Its Rude to Stare but You’re Welcome to See, curated by Isabella Chydenius, Michaelis Galleries Cape Town.
2019 Bibliotheca 700, Bag Factory, Johannesburg
2019 Home Affairs, curated by Astrid Gebhardt for Cape Town Art Week, Daor Contemporary Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2018 Buffer Zones, curated by Juliana Irene Smith, Vaasa, Finland.
2018 Body Politic 2: Pathology, curated by Louise Westerhout, Cape Town, South Africa.
2018 Any Body Dance Lab Group Showcase, curated by Kopano Maroga, Thalia Laric and Kristina Johnston, Cape Town, South Africa.
2018 I’ll Show You Mine If You Show Me Your Wallet, curated by Ed Young, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2017 In Bed With Artists Exhibition, curated by Nico Athene and Sitaara Stodle, Cape Town, South Africa
Awards and Grants
2022 Centre for Human Rights and the Arts at Bard College Microgrant.
2021 Sasol New Signatures Merit Award.
2021 RINC funding, Wits School of the Arts, Wits University.
2021 Music Dance, Artist in Residence, Cape Town.
2019 Sasol New Signatures Merit Award.
2019 Postgraduate Research Grant, Wits University.
2019 Arts Research Africa WSOA Mellon funded Masters Bursary.
2019 Live Art Workshop artist in residence at the Institute for Creative Arts, UCT, Cape Town.
2018 Sante Fe Art Institute, Artist in Residence, New Mexico, USA
2018 Any Body Dance Lab, Artist in Residence, Cape Town, South Africa
2018 Vermont Studio Centre, Artist in Residence, Vermont, USA
2017 Arteles Creative Residency Program, Artist in Residence, Finland
2007 Graduation BA with distinction in Social Anthropology Class medal SAN3015S (Anthropology through ethnography) Dean’s Merit List
2006 Class medal REL2048S (Psychology of religion) Dean’s Merit List
2005 Entrance scholarship Dean’s Merit List
Residencies and Conference Participation
2020 Arts Research Africa Symposium. Workshop Presentation: Approximating unKnowns as an Ethics Towards Encountering Difference
2019 Arts, Objects and Archive Conference and Paper Presentation
2019 Live Art Workshop Institute for Creative Arts with the support of Pro Helvitia, Michaelis, UCT, Cape Town
2018 Sante Fe Art Institute, Artist in Residence, New Mexico, USA
2018 Any Body Dance Lab, Artist in Residence, Cape Town, South Africa
2018 Wiser Symposium on Well Sexuality, Panelist, University of Witswaterstrand, Johannesburg
2018 Vermont Studio Centre, Artist in Residence, Vermont, USA
2017 Arteles Creative Residency Program, Artist in Residence, Finland
2014 Centre for the Archive, University of Cape Town, Research Resident ‘Body as Archive’